"I write of melancholy, by being busy to avoid melancholy." - Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

I am, for the most part, a melancholic person. I like and enjoy it. It makes me happy to know I can be sad, that I can take a nothing day and suddenly make it seem not worthwhile. I am Mary Richards’ alter ego.

2012 has arrived which also brings the Mayan Prophecy into focus. The end of the world is inevitable. But wait, I have yet to finish and publish my novel! What were the Mayans thinking? Although I am tempted to outline the end of time as we know it, I will refrain. My New Year’s resolution is to refrain from damning the outline just because I have a public forum to do so.

I am a woman of strong will. Even with this knowledge I realized that will be damned when it comes to the Holidays. Throughout the past year, which I had ample time to reflect upon during my red-eye plane-changing trip from Los Angeles to South Carolina, the will to write and the will to abstain from any distractions (that might impinge upon the party of the first will) held strong and steady.

So the program begins. After receiving directives from my instructors, I was given the task of writing an outline. Now, this may seem a bit strange, but like many writers, I am not exactly the linear type. Haruki Murakami said it best:

“I don’t think about an outline when I’m writing a novel. Not one thought whatsoever. That’s because if you start thinking about an outline, you lose most of the joy of writing a novel. “

Always be closing. It’s not just for real estate salesmen. It’s for writers like me. Writers who are so close to finishing their books, they can physically taste it, see it in the bookstore window, feel the smooth cover when they sign a copy. Perhaps even one day in the near future, look back on this post and say, “Remember when?”

Shanna Mahin is a high school dropout who rallied late and has become optimistic about a strong finish, due in no small part to a 2008 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellowship, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Colony Fellowship, and a few summer residencies. She's currently working on completing her memoir, tentatively titled The Concerns of the Bourgeoisie. She asks that you make note of the word “tentatively.”